Anthology of Interest II/References
Trivia *'I, Meatbag' takes its title from Isaac Asimov's novel I, Robot, as did a previous episode, 'I, Roommate'. *The song used frequently during Bender's "What If" segment is Conga, by Miami Sound Machine.￼ *'Raiders of the Lost Arcade' takes its title from the first Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark. *The title of Leela's segment is likely a reference to the Broadway musical and 1978 movie The Wiz, which was also a reinterpretation of L. Frank Baum's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Her dream is also similar to the storyline of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. *When Fry first appears in Leela's scenario as a scarecrow he tries to scare a crow by reading Stephen King's horror novel "Christine" about an evil car. Fry reads, "...and then 'HONK HONK'; the car honked his own horn". *Fry's scenario features a number of video game parodies and in-jokes: **The intro scene is a reference to Asteroids. **The attackers' home planet of Nintendu 64 is a parody of the Nintendo 64 game console. **Donkey Kong's exit from the treaty signing is a reference to the original game, Donkey Kong. **The Milatari Headquarters is a reference to Atari. **General Colin Pac-man is a reference to both Colin Powell and Pac-Man, including his death animation. **The "widow" Pac-Man is Ms. Pac-Man, another version of the Pac-Man video game with a feminine character. **The 'escape tunnels' sequence is a parody of Pac-Man, including the sound effects and the various items Zoidberg ingests and subsequently coughs up. ***The escape tunnel itself is Mario's green pipe used in practically every Mario game. **The 'Blue key required' message is likely a reference to Doom. **The Nintendians attack sequence is a parody of Space Invaders, including the ship design and movement, as is Fry's strategy of firing through his own shelter. **"All Your Base Are Belong to Us" is a much parodied phrase from the game Zero Wing. **Some of the Nintendians that come out of the ship include: a robot from the game Berzerk, a fried egg from Burgertime, Q*bert, and an evil brain-bot (possibly from Robotron 2084). **The Italian ambassador is a parody of Mario from the Super Mario Bros. games. *The orange guy exiting the spaceship (likely a parody of Q*Bert) when the invaders land says "Where can a guy get some pants around here?" backwards. *Normally, Leela is a firm but good hearted member of the crew, however her segment showcases the worst aspects of her character proving that she has an extreme dark side to her that was alluded to in Anthology of Interest I: **She steals the Ruby Boots from the body of the Man-Witch of the West and unsucessfully tries to lie about it to the not-lolipop guild. **After The Cute Witch of the North teases her about her man sized feet, she kills her by lowering the boarding stairs of the ship onto her and repeatidly drags it over her corpse. **She mentions that the Fry Scarecrow should come with her to see the professor as he could get a brain, with Fry pointing out that that's not a nice thing to say. She was in essense calling him a brainless idiot without having known him for 30 seconds. **The main reason that she accepts Mom's offer to become a witch is so she can hurt people. **She pokes Hermes in the eyes to barge into the Emerald Laboratory so they can see the professor. **Instead of using the Ruby Boots power to go home, she uses it to turn into a witch then transforms Fry, Bender, and The Professor into frogs laughing manically afterwards. *The music playing whilst Fry fights the Nintendians is Tom Sawyer by Rush. On the audio commentary, the creators mention that one of the reasons this song was chosen was for the line 'And the space he invades he gets high on you', as the song plays during the Space Invaders-like battle. *The Nintendian's demand for "Quarters! A million allowances worth of quarters! No slugs or tokens!" references the price of an arcade game, generally a quarter or multiple quarters. *Bender's tale of interest ends in the same way as in Anthology of Interest I. His death is even followed by a character uttering the same line, 'Goodnight, sweet prince'. *It's interesting to note that Leela's tale of interest is not, in fact, necessarily what would happen if she found her true home. Leela is knocked unconscious, and we as the audience see her dream, not what the What If? machine shows. *The clothes Bender first wears as a human have the same color coding (white shirt, blue pants) as Groening's other character Homer Simpson. Category:References